ICPC stated Illicit money flowing out of Africa is greater than development grants
Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) out of Africa, according to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), greatly outnumber grants from international development partners to the continent.
During a meeting with the leadership of the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA) at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, the commission’s chairman, Bolaji Owasanoye, stated this.
In a statement issued by the commission’s spokesperson, Azuka Ogugua, Owasanoye lamented the IFF challenge facing Africa and expressed hope that collaboration with DTCA in terms of peer learning and sharing of information, intelligence, and experiences could go a long way toward addressing the threat.
“ICPC is the secretariat for the inter-agency committee on IFFs in Africa, and one of the biggest problems that Africa is facing is the issue of capital flight.
“The amount of capital that leaves Africa is far more than the development grants that it gets, and this has been a recurrent issue over the years.
“We are not averse to having collaboration with DTCA because we have our foot on the ground.
“We will designate officers to look at the broad landscape and areas of collaboration,” he said.
Rabiu Dagari, the Director-General of the DTCA, also spoke at the event, saying that in the greater interest of the continent’s development, they can integrate all Africans on corruption issues.
“I’d like to see how we can collaborate.” “We can develop content papers and then reach out to other African countries for their participation with you to share ideas and see the problems that are being encountered, as well as ventilate and see what really needs to be done to reduce the level of corruption on the African continent that is holding us back,” Dagari explained.
He urged the ICPC and other anti-corruption authorities to broaden their advocacy efforts in the fight against corruption, and he urged the Federal Government to provide the DTCA access to funds held by Nigeria’s Technical Corporation Fund (NTCF).
